Peter Chiarelli pushing GM out the door!

Last week, it was reported that the St. Louis Blues were promoting executive Peter Chiarelli, possibly giving him complete control over the organization as President of Hockey Operations.

This got fans in St. Louis worried, seeing that his promotion would allow Chiarelli to have control over current general manager Doug Armstrong. And to make things worse, insider Elliotte Friedman reported on his latest 32 Thoughts podcast on Sportsnet that Chiarelli, wants another shot at being an NHL team’s GM and could be the next in line to get Armstrong’s job. 

“What I think is interesting is the Peter Chiarelli hire there, you know Peter Chiarelli wants another chance to be a GM somewhere. I wonder if it’s almost set-up that he’ll be the successor in St. Louis when Doug Armstrong’s time is up”.

You know how much of a controversial pick Chiarelli is to get another chance to be general manager. Yes, Chiarelli is a Stanley Cup champion from his time with the Boston Bruins but if you take a look at how badly he mangled the Edmonton Oilers it’s hard to fathom how anyone could think he’s fit for an NHL management position. 

After all, this is a guy who fell face first into a generational talent in Connor McDavid and then did his absolute best to sewer the team’s lineup. At least, that’s how it looked from the outside looking in. Chiarelli hitched his ride to Mikko Koskinen as the team’s starting goaltender, he signed depth guys like Tobias Rieder, Jussi Jokinen and Alex Chiasson to play alongside McDavid, indirectly traded Jordan Eberle for Ryan Spooner, gave Milan Lucic a seven year, $42 million contract, traded the pick for Matthew Barzal for Griffin Reinhart and… oh ya he traded Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. Honestly, I could go on and on and on… but you get the picture.

And for those of you out there saying, “Well ya… but look what he did with the Bruins!” Well, not so fast. It was actually interim GM Jeff Gorton who signed Zdeno Chara, acquired Tuukka Rask and drafted Brad Marchand all in a four month stretch. Oh… and he also drafted Milan Lucic and Phil Kessel, while also signing Marc Savard in the same stretch. Patrice Bergeron was already in the organization. If you dig deep the only real moves Chiarelli made with the Bruins was trading Tyler Seguin for Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith and hiring head coach Claude Julien. We can argue on the merits of those moves, but both obviously factored into the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup championship.

If nothing else, it’ll be interesting to see how things play out for the Blues under Chiarelli’s leadership and if he convinces them or another NHL team to get the GM job after all.